Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka were all viciously targeted by trolls and angry England fans following the defeat at London’s Wembley Stadium. The team lost, 3-2, to Italy amid a nail-biting penalty shootout in which all three players missed their shots. Racists comments on social media pages flooded.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday condemned the racist abuse targeted at some of England’s Black players following the team’s widely watched loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday evening. A mural honouring Rashford, following his campaign to feed schoolchildren, has been been vandalised with graffiti in Manchester.
A wave of online abuse soon followed, with monkey and banana emoji and racist comments posted underneath photographs of the players on their personal Instagram accounts.
Johnson told reporters an evening news conference at the prime minister’s residence, 10 Downing Street: “To those who have been directing racist abuse at the players, I say, shame on you, and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged.”
The Duke of Cambridge has joined the Prime Minister in condemning the “sickening” racist abuse of England players on social media after their Euro 2020 final defeat.
William, who is president of the Football Association, said the footballers should not have to experience this “abhorrent behaviour”, while Boris Johnson said the team deserve to be hailed as “heroes” following the Three Lions’ loss to Italy.
.Mr Johnson tweeted: “This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Football Association also issued a statement saying it is “appalled”, while the Metropolitan Police vowed to investigate.
In a tweet written personally by William and signed off with his initial W, he said: “I am sickened by the racist abuse aimed at England players after last night’s match.
“It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she is “disgusted” by the “vile” racist abuse players were subjected to.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden tweeted that he “shared the anger” of the “appalling racist abuse” towards the “heroic” players.
The Prince of Wales said: “Recognising the rich diversity of cultures which make this country so special, and in many ways unique, lies at the heart of what we can be as a nation.”
“The Prime Minister wants to see everybody getting behind the team to cheer them on, not boo.
Following the abuse towards players on Sunday, an FA spokesman said: “The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our
“Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”
Facebook – which owns Instagram – said it tries to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.
A company spokesperson said: “In addition to our work to remove this content, we encourage all players to turn on Hidden Words, a tool which means no one has to see abuse in their comments or DMs.
“No one thing will fix this challenge overnight, but we’re committed to keeping our community safe from abuse.”
Twitter said it had proactively removed more than 1,000 posts over the past 24 hours which violated its policy and taken swift action to permanently suspend several accounts.
The official Twitter account for the England men’s and women’s national teams offered support to the victimised players, tweeting: “We stand with our players.”
